Went out and did a little shooting today to find out how the CDS on my new scope worked outside of my normal shooting ranges (up to 300 yards). Checked my group at 100 before I went long, then put a milk jug full of water at 400, 450, 500, 550.

Estimated my windage at 400, was off by 2" on my first shot, then 1 shot kills out to 550 yards! Those milk jugs didn't stand a chance.

It was a good workout hauling 40# of water in the pack uphill 2 miles to the cut I shot in, plus pulling my cart with collapsible bench. Felt great to shoot, and shoot well! Those bulls are in trouble.

Thanks everyone for the congrats on the new baby as well. I feel like I've been overshadowing that aspect of my life with my hunt story, but it is truly amazing.

He's such an amazing little person already. He only gets up once a night to feed, usually around 3:30, and lets us sleep 4-5 hours uninterrupted on either end of that. The changes that happen after only 3 weeks (unreal, he's already 3 weeks old today) are pretty amazing. Watching the visual recognition begin, the head/neck control gaining strength fast, and facial features begin to change, its amazing. My wife and I are definitely in love with the little guy, and it feels like he's been with us forever already. Couldn't imagine life without him

Hey, those milk jugs can be quite elusive especially when you can't find them after walking 550 yards back to your shooting location, only to realize you put them 100 yards to the left of where you thought you did! Made for some tricky shooting through tiny gaps in trees. Was a lot of fun actually.

If history has any way of repeating itself, I'll most likely kill my bull this year inside of 15 yards. That's how it usually happens for me

Hey, those milk jugs can be quite elusive especially when you can't find them after walking 550 yards back to your shooting location, only to realize you put them 100 yards to the left of where you thought you did! Made for some tricky shooting through tiny gaps in trees. Was a lot of fun actually.

If history has any way of repeating itself, I'll most likely kill my bull this year inside of 15 yards. That's how it usually happens for me

Finally going to make a scouting trip over there this weekend! I have 3 locations in mind that I want to get into. Traveling super early Saturday morning and coming home Sunday night to avoid the holiday traffic. I've been in contact with a couple of members who have given me some good intel lately, so thanks guys, you know who you are. From the sounds of things, theres a couple of bulls beginning to test their vocal cords out, so hopefully I can hear my first bugle of the season. Hopefully I can add some photos of big hard horned bulls on Monday!

Finally going to make a scouting trip over there this weekend! I have 3 locations in mind that I want to get into. Traveling super early Saturday morning and coming home Sunday night to avoid the holiday traffic. I've been in contact with a couple of members who have given me some good intel lately, so thanks guys, you know who you are. From the sounds of things, theres a couple of bulls beginning to test their vocal cords out, so hopefully I can hear my first bugle of the season. Hopefully I can add some photos of big hard horned bulls on Monday!

smoke is absolutely unbearable today out this direction! Visibility is like 500 yards. Afternoon winds have been blowing it out a bit though. Worst it has been hands down so far this summer. Good luck this weekend! I'm out of town or I'd offer up a second set of eyes.

Logged

It is foolish and wrong to mourn these men. Rather, we should thank god that such men lived. -General George S. Patton

Finally going to make a scouting trip over there this weekend! I have 3 locations in mind that I want to get into. Traveling super early Saturday morning and coming home Sunday night to avoid the holiday traffic. I've been in contact with a couple of members who have given me some good intel lately, so thanks guys, you know who you are. From the sounds of things, theres a couple of bulls beginning to test their vocal cords out, so hopefully I can hear my first bugle of the season. Hopefully I can add some photos of big hard horned bulls on Monday!

smoke is absolutely unbearable today out this direction! Visibility is like 500 yards. Afternoon winds have been blowing it out a bit though. Worst it has been hands down so far this summer. Good luck this weekend! I'm out of town or I'd offer up a second set of eyes.

I was worried about smoke, but this may be my only weekend to scout so i'm going. I'll learn the lay of some land and put boots on the ground in some places I'm excited to see. Forecast up high calls for a S/SW wind both days so hopefully that helps some.

Well my Dad and I had a successful weekend scouting. We bugged out at 2 a.m. on Saturday morning, and came home mid day yesterday, hoping to not hit any traffic. We set the cruise control at 75 and never touched it the whole way home, fantastic!

The smoke in a lot of that area is unbelievable right now, especially in Thorp on our way back through yesterday. It felt like we were in the fire. I feel terrible for those of you who are having to live in that right now.

We spent a lot of time Saturday bouncing around on nasty roads. I have hunted portions of that unit, and knew the roads were rough, but some of the ones we found Saturday afternoon took the cake. 4 wheel low, 1st gear, and crawl. It was the only way to move without rattling the truck, and us, to pieces.

We covered a lot of ground, getting to know the lay of the land. I was able to effectively check off a few large areas. We finally made it to the area that I was really interested in about 4:30 Saturday afternoon. We shouldered our packs, grabbed our scopes, and headed up the trail. We had a vantage point in mind to do some glassing for the evening. We had a super productive evening seeing almost 100 elk in 2 big groups, and several bulls, including, the one I'm hoping to track down in a couple weeks. We heard lots of cow talk, and several bugles. Man it got the blood pumping! No photo opportunities, so I'll leave it at that!

Sunday morning, different area, fewer elk, but plenty to go around. One thing that I really enjoyed about this weekend, and the elk, was being able to observe elk that are just being elk, and not being pushed around by an orange army. They were so vocal, and often we could get in pretty close if careful, just because they weren't so high strung. It was a lot of fun.

All in all, a super productive weekend, it felt good to stretch my legs in the elk woods once again, and spend some quality time with my Dad. I know at 60, he still has many good years of hunting ahead of him, but I'm more aware than ever now that those will be gone before I know it, so I'm cherishing them as best I can now.

Well the time is almost here. 4 sleeps until I head east! Gear is basically packed, just needs to be fine tuned. I have a big presentation at work tomorrow, and then I'll spend the next couple evenings pre cooking meals for camp. I've already got chili, spaghetti, and fajitas cooked and frozen. Going to play with some breakfasts to see how the vac sealed boil a meal deal works on that front. Eggs, sausage and potatoes should reheat ok I think?

I've had an unexpected change to my group in the last week. A friend of mine that I grew up, who moved to LA a few years ago when he got serious about web development, asked me if it would be ok if he came and filmed the hunt. He's got some connections in the film industry that are very into hunting and the outdoors, and he's got some projects that he's floated to them for funding, but needs to show them what he can do with a camera in the field first. He's got top of the line 4k camera gear, and is hell bent on making a world class film out of this. At the very least, I'll have an awesome video documentation of my hunt to look back on for years to come. Super excited about it.

We're heading up and setting up camp Saturday morning and scouting for a day and a half before the opener. Hopefully we can get a few animals tracked down and get in on them Monday morning.

All this snow up high is worrying me a little bit. Any of you guys with more experience have any input if a foot of September snow will move those animals out of the highest country there? The ground I scouted over Labor day was 5500-6500 feet, so its definitely getting snow right now. I know if those animals move downhill to much, they'll be in a jungle, so I'm hoping they stay up in the alpine where they were.